About a week into the coronavirus pandemic, we at the Scene started receiving emails from sources inside Financial Peace Plaza — that is, the headquarters of Dave Ramsey’s Christian financial planning and media operation Ramsey Solutions. Despite a staffer testing positive, Ramsey declared that the offices would remain open, with employees coming into work. We reported it, and from what we heard, it sounded like Ramsey was none too pleased. So you can imagine how upset he was in July, when sources on his staff leaked to us again, this time to raise concerns about the in-person conference Ramsey was planning to host in Franklin, eschewing public health guidance and ignoring rising COVID-19 case counts. What made this whole experience particularly special, though, was when someone on the inside passed along Ramsey’s staff-wide email about our forthcoming story, in which he encouraged staff to “not give them clicks” and described our reporting as an “attack” on Christians. To that we say, God bless our sources. STEVEN HALE
Best Leak
Dave Ramsey’s COVID-19 Response
Eric England
